


Thread the Needle

by Emerald_Ashes



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Chapter 2 update with more klance, Fluff, Friendship Bracelets, Gen, Lance is crafty, Literally Lance is doing crafts, and a small attempt at humor, early stages of klance, really just absolute pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 15:34:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7763341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emerald_Ashes/pseuds/Emerald_Ashes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"That’s what happens when one goes on an impromptu mission into space with only a single set of clothes." </p><p>After many weeks in space, the paladins are finally granted some real downtime. Lance has some reparations to make to his wardrobe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Thread The Needle

It was hard to tell exactly how long they had been away from their planet. It felt like a lifetime, but Pidge estimated it had only added up to a few weeks. They had slowly grown accustom to life in space.

Although, after being in out and about in the far reaches of the universe for a while their Earth clothes were starting to get a little...well, worn. They were kept clean, but it came to a point where they certainly weren't fresh and new anymore. That’s what happens when one goes on an impromptu mission into space with only a single set of clothes.

Coran, of course, had offered them some of the Altean clothing that was aboard the ship. Surprisingly, it was in pristine condition considering it was 10,000 years old. No “space moths” had gotten to the clothes as Lance had put it. They accepted a few garments, mainly for sleep and when they were training outside of their paladin armor.    
  
Though no one would really admit it, their Earth clothes were like a security blanket. If they started to ignore them, or switch permanently to alien clothing, then maybe they were giving up the hope of ever returning to Earth. Their clothes were a promise that one day they would go home.

Now after a few rough weeks, the paladins were all given some precious down time. They were allowed to do whatever they wished. Shiro, Coran, and Allura were on the bridge strategizing their next move. Sometimes work and fun were the same for those three.  
  
Lance entered the bridge. The star map was on display, and they were looking at the planets that had sent off distress beacons.

“Having fun?” Lance asked walking over to the small group.

“I would not say this is fun, but rather an important duty that must be attended to,” Allura said, without glancing towards Lance.

“It wasn’t a serious question, princess. I know you’re working hard,” He looked at Shiro who offered a small smile. “Anyway, sorry to interrupt, but Coran I need help with something.”

  
"What is it, Lance?" Coran asked turning towards him, interested in what he might need.  
  
"Do you have a sewing kit?  There's a rip at the seam of my shirt and I want to fix it,” he was poking at hole at the shoulder of his blue and white t-shirt.    
  
"Sewing?” Coran pondered the question. “Hmm, yes I do believe we have some thread and needles down in a lower level. We had seamstresses in the castle at one point. I can take care of that for you."  
  
"No, no it's fine really. I know how to do it. I just need a thread and needle."

This caught Shiro and Allura’s attention. “You can sew, Lance?” Allura asked, seeming genuinely surprised. “It’s a rather delicate practice. I mean no offense, but you do not seem the type.”

“Yeah, uh my mother taught me. I was hyper kid, and put a lot of holes in my clothes while playing,” Lance explained, and smiled happily at the memory.  “She had said if I was going to break it, then I also had to fix it. But I actually liked doing it….the sewing, not so much the breaking. I’d also fix things for my brothers and sisters. Rips in stuffed animals, doll clothes, anything they came to me with really.”

“That’s wonderful,” Allura smiled at him, and Lance blushed a bit.

“So uh, Coran…”

"Ah, yes. Follow me." They excused themselves from Allura and headed down to the lower levels of the castle.  
  
Lance followed Coran through many corridors, and two different elevators before they finally found their destination. The room looked like a tailor shop. There was fabric lined against the wall in glass cases. And something that looked like a sewing machine. A full length mirror, and some things that Lance would bet were mannequins, but didn’t quite look like the ones found in shops on Earth.  A thin layer of dust on the items showed how long the room had sat untouched. There was a chest off to the far corner and Coran opened it up. He pulled out a small case and presented it to Lance.  
  
"Will this do?" Coran held the box out so he could see the contents inside.

It looked just like an Earth sewing items. Spools of thread ranging in thickness and needles stuck in a pincushion, even some buttons and beads. Lance picked up a spool of thread and played with it in his fingers. For being so old, it looked like new.

"Yeah.  This is perfect. How is this stuff still intact after all the time it spent sitting here?”

Coran mused over his question, “Our fabrics and materials were created to be sturdy and withstand the elements. Especially the items found in the castle, as they were meant for royalty and the paladins of old. Due to travelling for diplomacy, you could never be too certain what the atmosphere of different planets could do to your wardrobe. Why one time I remember we landed on a planet…” Coran started to segue off into a story.

“Thanks, Coran," Lance interrupted. “I appreciate the history lesson, but I’m going to take this up to the lounge to fix my shirt,” Lance took the box from Coran. He glimpsed some thicker thread that would have been used for something like embroidery inside the chest. “Hey, is it okay if I take that with me too?”

“Of course, help yourself,” Coran insisted.

Lance grabbed a handful of different colors and placed it inside the sewing kit. Once he had all of his supplies in hand, he and Coran left the room. Lance followed Coran back to the main floor, because honestly there were so many halls he would have been lost for a week in the castle. Then Coran dismissed himself once Lance had been brought to the lounge.

The common room the paladins used was empty at the moment, but Lance had expected that. Pidge and Hunk were experimenting down in Pidge’s make-shift lab. And if he had to guess Keith was probably down on the training deck sparring with the gladiators.

Lance plopped himself down on one of the couches, and popped opened the sewing kit. He grabbed a needle, and some thread. He played with it between his fingers; it felt almost silky to the touch. Next he pulled off his shirt and turned it inside out. It was a small rip and easily repairable. He knotted the end of the thread, lined up the seam, and started a quick whip stitch. Within a moment his shirt was back together.

“What are you doing?”

Lance jumped and ended up jabbing the needle into his finger. “Ow! Geez,” Lance whipped around and found Keith behind him holding a pouch of water. “Don’t sneak up on me!”

“I didn’t sneak,” Keith was still staring questioningly at Lance. “You just didn’t hear me come in.”

“I was preoccupied.” He packed the kit away, but took out the extra thread he had grabbed from the chest.

Keith had moved down to the couch across from Lance. “Preoccupied with…sewing?” 

“Yep, if you need something fixed let me know,” Lance said, distracting himself again with the thread. He had started measuring out arms-length strands, two strands of blue, then two strands of white. He placed them together, and knotted them.

“Now what are you doing?” Keith was watching him, perplexed.

Lance shrugged, “Making a friendship bracelet. You know the kind of stuff they teach kids at summer camp. Used to make these all the time during the summer with my siblings,” He started making forward knots with the string, and then switched to a backward knot so the strands would meet in the middle. After a few repetitions a blue and white chevron pattern appeared.

Keith was watching him rather intently. Lance was fairly nimble with making the bracelet, and half of it done about ten minutes into it.

“Can I ask you something?” Keith said.

Lance looked up at him, but didn’t stop making knots. “Um, sure. What is it?”

Keith looked uncomfortable, and maybe even a little embarrassed. “Can you teach me….how to do that?” Okay, he was completely embarrassed. His face was turning almost as red as his lion.

Lance laughed; it was a happy, relaxed sound. It wasn’t meant to make fun of Keith.  “Yeah, definitely bro. Come here, I’ll show you.”

Keith got up and moved over to sit next to him. Lance held out a handful of thread to him. “We’ll start off simple. Pick two colors you want to use.”

“Okay,” Keith picked black and red, and measured them out like how he saw Lance do it before. After cutting it to the right length, Lance folded them in half and knotted them at the top. He pinned the strands under his leg so he could pull the knots tight in the bracelet.

“It’s actually really easy to do,” Lance started to explain. “I was doing a bit more of an advanced pattern, but let’s just start you off on a striped bracelet.”

Keith just nodded.

Lance scooted just a little closer to Keith so he would be able to see better. He took two strands and held them up. “So really once you get the repetition down, it’s pretty straightforward. To make the first knot you just make a figure four with the string,” Lance demonstrated as he spoke. “Then pull the string through, and tie it tight. Repeat that a second time, and then move on to the next string until you make it to the end of the row. Each strand will need two knots each or the pattern won’t look right.”

“I think I understand,” Keith said and Lance handed him back the bracelet.

“Give it a shot, and let me know if you get stuck.”

They sat in silence as they each worked on their bracelets. Lance watched Keith from the corner of his eye, and could see him struggling a bit at first. But after a few rows he started to get it down.

“I didn’t think you’d be interested in something like this,” Lance said quietly.

He felt Keith shrug next to him. When had he gotten so close?

“I’ve never really had the opportunity to do something like this before,” Keith answered, and Lance didn’t push him for more information. “Plus, you looked like you were having a good time while doing this.”

Lance felt a blush rise to his cheek’s and he wasn’t quite sure why. “We’re flying through the middle of space, galaxies away from home. It just felt like something normal to do for a change.”

“I don’t think I’ve seen you sit still for so long either, you know, without talking,” Keith said.

“Hey!”

“I didn’t mean it as an insult,” Keith quickly covered. “You were just so focused on what you were doing. It was… nice to watch. There’s a lot more to you than you let on.”

“O-oh,” Lance responded. “Thank you? It’s not like I was trying to keep it a secret, but when do we ever really have time to discuss hobbies?”

“Good point,” Keith returned to making his bracelet. “We’ve been pretty busy with Voltron lately. But I like when you’re calm, and not trying to make terrible jokes.”

“My jokes are not terrible.”

“Sometimes they are,” then he made a disgruntled sound. “Uh, Lance a little help,” Keith’s fingers were tangled in the knots of the string.

Lance burst into laughter, “Wow, one of the greatest pilots the universe has ever seen becomes trapped in embroidery thread.”

“Lance!” Keith started to yell, but stopped after hearing what had been said. “Wait…you just called me a great pilot.”

Lance’s eyes went wide, and his ears were turning pink. “I did not. S-shut up!”  Lance grabbed Keith’s hands and began to undo the tangles of strings that he had managed to create. He wouldn’t make eye-contact. Keith knew Lance was flustered now, and it was amusing.

“You did, you admitted I’m good. You can’t take it back now,” Keith teased him. “For the record you’re pretty great too,” Keith smiled at Lance. “You know, at flying.”

It took a moment for the words to sink in, but then Lance beamed. It was unexpected and brilliant. Truthfully, it was one of the brightest smiles he’d ever seen grace Lance’s face before.

“Wow, you guys look so cute!” a third voice suddenly interjected, and immediately shattered the moment. It was Pidge, with their phone in hand and a picture of Keith and Lance on the screen. Incredibly, Pidge had managed to keep their phone in perfect working order all this time. Hunk was standing behind them, a bowl of food goo in hand, and a giant grin spread across his face.

“Pidge!” Lance shrieked, and pulled away from Keith. “Give me that!”                                     

“No, I’m gonna show Coran,” Pidge turned around and sprinted out of the room. “He’ll be so happy to see you two bonding!” they could be heard laughing from down the hall.

Lance vaulted over the couch and chased after Pidge. Keith remained on the couch watching as Lance bolted out of the room.

“Lance, you forgot your shirt!” Hunk called after him, but it was too late. He had already disappeared around the corner. Keith sighed, picked up the discarded shirt, and together with Hunk followed after the two.


	2. Twisted Up In Knots

This was so stupid.

Keith had been sitting in the lounge for hours now working on the darn bracelet Lance had started with him earlier.

Lance had come back for his shirt after running out to chase Pidge. He didn’t stay long after that. He offered to clean up the supplies, but Keith had told him he wanted to use them. Which led him to this point.

He had been sitting on the couch all afternoon working on his bracelet. He just wanted to finish this one thing.

The bracelet was far from perfect. It was a supposed to be a simple striped pattern of alternating red and black. But there were flecks of red in places where it was supposed to be solid black, and the knots were not completely pulled through and smooth on the back of the bracelet. It wasn’t even straight. It curved strangely in a few places.

Keith probably should have given up hours ago. It would have certainly saved him a lot of aggravation. But he was too stubborn to admit that he couldn’t do this. It was a child’s craft, surely a highly trained pilot could do it too. So he pushed through. It was finally done (long enough to wrap around a wrist) even if it wasn’t all that pleasing to the eye.

He heard the door of the lounge open up with a hiss of air, and he glanced over his shoulder to see who it was. Quickly he shoved the bracelet under his thigh, out of sight.

“Hey, I’ve been looking for you,” Lance jumped down onto the couches, jostling Keith a bit. “Hunk made dinner for everyone. It’s just about ready.”

“Okay, I’ll be there in a minute,” Keith said dismissively.

Lance hummed, and tilted his head to the side peering at Keith. “Have…have you been in here all afternoon? Because I checked your usual haunts, and it didn’t look like you’d been near them all day.”

Keith felt a blush rising to his cheeks. He was embarrassed to have been caught here. Especially by Lance. He didn’t answer and decided to focus on the couch cushions instead. Lance was bound to make fun of him.

Lance laughed. “Dude, you fall asleep or something? Nothing to be ashamed about. You can take a break once in a while.”

Keith heaved a sigh and shook his head. He held out his fist, and revealed the misshapen bracelet he had been working on to Lance. “I was just trying to finish this.”

Lance stared at him, wide-eyed. Then a dopey grin spread across his face. “Seriously?”

“Yes. But it’s junk,” Keith spat. Now that he had admitted it out loud, he couldn’t believe he had literally wasted an entire afternoon doing a craft when they were in the middle of a war. “Laugh all you want.”

Lance only smiled, but it wasn’t condescending. It was warm. “No, no. It’s cool.” He moved to sit next to Keith on the couch. “This really took you all afternoon?”

“Yes. I guess I lost track of time. I was so frustrated. You made it look simple, but this thing is nothing but a line of disorganized knots,” Keith scowled at the rope in his hands. “Might as well just launch it out an airlock.”

“No!” Lance practically shouted and swiped the bracelet out of his hand. “I mean, um… you put a lot of effort into this. You can’t just throw it away.”

“Well there’s no point in keeping it.”

“But you can’t throw it away,” Lance said again. Why was he so adamant about the dumb thing?

Keith looked at him skeptically. “And why not?”

“It’s bad juju, dude,” Lance told him matter-of-factly.

“Juju?” Keith drawled out. What kind of game was Lance trying to play?

“Yep. See the reason people make these are because they hold magic in them, especially when you receive one as a gift,” Lance grinned. “You tie one on your wrist or ankle, and make a wish. You keep it on until it falls off on its own, and when it does your wish will come true.”

“Uh-huh,” Keith was not taking any of Lance’s words seriously. This was nonsense. “You know I’m not five, right?”

“It’s the truth though!” Lance threw his hands up in the air to stress his point. “It’s important, okay? I don’t make the rules. It’s just how it is. Do you really want to test the universe?”

Keith snorted. So now the universe was involved.

“See, here.” Lance continued and reached into his pocket. He pulled out another bracelet. It was the one Keith had seen him working on earlier in the day. “This…this one is for you. I was going to give it to you later. You said you’ve never had one before so I thought that maybe you’d like this. But if you don’t want it that’s fine, too…”

“Lance, you’re babbling,” Keith told him.

Lance looked at him sheepishly, “Sorry.” Lance held out the bracelet to Keith. “Will you accept this?”

Keith gently took it into his hands. “Um, thanks.” But now that he had it, he wasn’t sure what to do next. Lance was watching him rather intently, a smile still on his face.

“Make a wish,” Lance demanded. “And you have to mean it.” He added, looking Keith dead in the eyes.

Keith sighed and closed his eyes, and played along with Lance’s fun for the moment. After a few seconds of silence, he said “Okay, done. Now what?”

“Good. Give it here,” Lance held out his hand expectantly. Keith gave him back the bracelet. “Right or left?”

Keith realized he was gesturing at his hands. “Left.”

Lance took Keith’s hand into his own, and then deliberately set it on his knee to get some leverage. Keith felt another blush rise involuntarily to his face at the unexpected contact. But Lance was fixated on his arm. He took the pretty blue and white chevron bracelet, and wrapped it around Keith’s wrist. Then he tied two secure knots to the tails of the string. The bracelet was on tight, but not tight enough it would disrupt his circulation. He could still spin it freely around his wrist.

“There, all set,” Lance announced cheerily.

Keith didn’t know what to do now. Lance had just given him an admittedly beautiful bracelet. He wasn’t used to getting things like this. Shiro, of course, had given him gifts on holidays in the past, but this was out of the blue. There was no reason behind it.

This was just because Lance felt like it.  A whim.

“I don’t know what to do now,” Keith confessed.

“Well, that’s it. You just have to wait for the magic,” Lance winked.

Keith looked down at his imperfect creation still sitting in his hand. “Then…then would you accept this one?” Lance gave him something, he should return the favor…right?

“I was hoping you would ask!” Lance grinned at him, then made a grabby motion with his hands.

Keith relinquished the bracelet to him. Lance screwed his eyes shut, as though he were concentrating very hard. Then he took the bracelet and handed it back to Keith.

“Can you tie it on me?” Lance asked, pushing up his left sleeve.

Keith only nodded, and took Lance’s hand to tie on the string bracelet. His hand was warm. He tied two knots like Lance had done so that it was secure. Lance watched happily while he worked.

Once he was finished he grabbed Keith’s hand, lacing their fingers together, and held their hands up in the air. “There. We match.” He said, admiring the two bracelets.

He stood up from his seat on the couch and tugged at Keith to move with him. “Now let’s go to dinner. I’m sure everyone will be waiting for us.”

Keith smiled fondly. “Thanks, Lance.”

“I hope your wish comes true,” Lance said softly. Keith could see a tint of pink in Lance’s cheeks. Was he blushing now?

Keith couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re so corny.” Their hands were still clasped together. His stomach twisted making an odd little flip.

Lance only shrugged. “Yeah, but it’s true.”

Keith finally stood up too, and they headed to the door. Lance still held his hand, and Keith hadn’t pulled away yet. Honestly he liked the contact. Lance squeezed his hand a bit, and shot him another smile as he towed him through the door and into the hall. If anything Keith had wished that there would be more moments like this in the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look another chapter five months later!
> 
> Honestly I forgot that I had written more to this, and I was going through my files and found it. So have some Klance friendship bracelet fluff. Just in time for Valentine's Day. With a totally sappy ending line too (I couldn't think of anything better, sorry).

**Author's Note:**

> I can't really say where this story came from. Pretty sure it was meant to be something deeper than what it actually turned out to be. But then I just started thinking of Lance and Keith making friendship bracelets, and well 2000 words later and here we are. 
> 
> By the way, sorry if the summary was misleading, or just not very good. I wasn't sure how to describe this story. It's really just meant to be a fun piece.


End file.
